| Grindylow
Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: [GMT + 1]
Posts: 14,426
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Tiana Patterson
Gryffindor Second Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Iris Forsfelle
Slytherin Fourth Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
????
Hufflepuff Third Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Mirabelle Draguar
Ravenclaw Fourth Year
Ministry Department Head:
Violet Fawley
Ecological Protection  x3
|  Swedishfish Girl! ❄ Page-Turning Seamstress ❄ Jess's Soul Sister! Sweetest Swede!
SPOILER!!: Student Replies Quote:
Originally Posted by Watson  But the question that Vance asked was an interesting one. Could birds' songs or cries be used for something else other than rain forecasting? Vi wondered. Weather patterns of course. Perhaps a change in air pressure. Or a storm? What about a metaphorical storm? Like a big event that was about to happen? Perhaps in ancient times... Though in literature, Vi knew that some authors liked to use birds as a form of warning to the characters. "Perhaps bird's flight patterns, sings, and cries could be useful for alerting someone to a metaphorical storm? Such as some form of danger being near them or in their near future?" she suggested. She was unsure exactly where she was going with this but she'd give it a try. Her question sparked raised hands and Olivia was first to share her thoughts. Where the lioness was going with the metaphorical storm Laurel wasn't entirely sure but the other things she said were valid. Nodding kindly she said. "Birds are very receptive to all changes in the weather and danger like you said Olivia so if you for example walk in a forest and all the chattering birds go super quiet then you can expect looming danger or even an upcoming storm ahead in your immediate future." It paid to be observant of birds and all creatures really.
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Originally Posted by ArianaBlack Zoryn DID give herself a pat on the back, but not for the reason Professor Vance had suggested. Zor was patting her own back for the very fact that she was still here and still very awake, despite the HORRENDOUS news that class wasn't over yet. What. a. Letdown.
"Roosters sing to annoy us and to wake people up from their beauty sleep," but that's all Zoryn had for this question.
She had put quite enough effort into this class for one day, thanks. Zoryn spoke next and Laurel turned her head to the other lioness with a smile even though she felt that the girl hadn't exactly put much thought into her answer. "Roosters sing every morning yes Zoryn but you shouldn't see it as an annoyance but rather as a free alarm clock that you don't have to set. Very useful if you think about it." No need to worry about batteries or if the spell had depleted its energy a rooster always cried at the dawn of a new day. Quote:
Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMckay A question Dahlia had to think long and hard over. She'd never really paid much attention to what birds did before now. Of course she watched them and heard them, mostly in her garden, but she hadn't really examined what any of those weird chirps and calls they made might mean. Other animals, though, they had warning cries when there as danger. So maybe birds did too?
"Do some birds let out a call when there is a predator around? Like, to let others know to fly away, or maybe to get together to scare the nasty one off? Could that maybe help people too?" Dahlia was next and she provided a thought worthy question that deserved a response. Letting her eyes rest on the young badger Laurel said with a beam. "Interesting that you brought that up Dahlia. Birds do have their own language of communication and they use their cries to call out and warn the rest of their flock when a predator is near so that they can get way quickly. If humans could understand and speak the language of birds then yes the cries might help us too except that birds and humans don't share many common predators." Quote:
Originally Posted by NifflerFan Annnd now was the time for loads of talking from the professor. Emmeline leaned her head on her hand and tried valiantly not to fall asleep. 'Cept it wasn't long before Professor Vance was pointing out the augureys and talking about them, and THAT made the Gryffindor pay close attention to her talking. As soon as the professor got to her question, Emmeline's hand shot up and she said, "Professor, what about phoenix song? 'Cause it makes people feel loads better and brings hope and stuff?" She grinned at the Divination professor, 'cause this lesson was suddenly cool. Now that magical creatures were gonna be more involved and stuff. Emmeline followed after Dahlia bringing up the song of the pheonix. Smiling over at the lioness she nodded "Yes the pheonix song fits Emmeline. The people a pheonix chooses to sing for is given increasing strength, courage, hope and love like how the late great headmasterDumbledore's pheonix; Fawkes did for Harry Potter in his duel against Voldermort back in the day." Many years had passed since.
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Originally Posted by Anna Banana Maddie stopped writing and dashed to the professor's side when four random birds appeared. "HEYYYY, Susie, Romeo, Julia and Artreyu!" she said to the birds. Well, the professor had said to tell them hello. Whoooa, there were some interesting stories to tell about an Augurey! Maddie shifted her weight from one foot to the other then raised her hand. "People cry for LOTS of reasons, so maybe birds do, too!" she exclaimed. "They could be hungry or tired! They can be hurt or sad or just tired of moving around in patterns and wanting to settle in one place." Little Maddie Kemp surprised Laurel by literally taking her up on her words by dashing forwards to say hello to the four augureys in their stall. Slightly distracted by the girls action Laurel heard only some parts of her answer which she responded to with a kind look in the girl's direction. "You right Maddie birds are similar to humans in the respect that they can cry for different reasons. The pheonix tears for example has healing properties, the cry of a rooster can wake someone up, or like our augureys do foretell rain. The cry's meaning changes with circumstance just like for us humans." Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimothy As for the question, Vivian tried imagining herself as one of the birds. What would cause her to cry? Why would she cry, in the first place? The first thought that fell into her head was to prank humans, which would have been funny. Honestly, she technically would do that, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. Instead, she raised her hand to share a more logical reason. "I think it could be useful for other things, Professor, like when someone or a different creature enters their territory, their cries would alert them to back off." Right? Turning her gaze to Vivian she nodded happily "Yes definitely Vivian if the birds sees the person or other creature that enters their territory as a threat they need to protect themselves from their cries will both mean to back off and as a warning to the rest of their flock." Birds were very flock orientated and they defended that. Quote:
Originally Posted by RachieRu But since she was here, she figured she may as well answer the question. She tilted her head, trying to think of an answer. She listened to what her fellow students said, writing some notes, before she put her hand into the air. "Don't some birds, like owls for example, use their cry to let other fellow birds know that they are around?" She was sure that was owls hooted sometimes. Letting her eyes dart over the student faces Laurel came to stop on Hattie as the girl offered up her question to the mix. Beaming she nodded in response. "Yes Hattie, owls or any species of birds can use their cries to let others of their species know that they are there especially if they want to find a mate for instance." To just bring up one example. Quote:
Originally Posted by Daydreamer11 "I think that bird flight patterns could definitely be used for other things. Animals are very sensitive to things in the environment, more so than humans I think. Maybe their flight patterns can foretell changes other than the coming of rain........weather in general, bad things coming, danger." it could be any number of things, Shay wasn't really sure. Gaze shifting to Shay she responded with a kind smile pursing her lips. "Yes Shay the birds flight patterns can foretell general weather and temperature changes that humans aren't as nature attuned to as humans are like storms, earthquackes, rain and danger like predators and so on." Quote:
Originally Posted by natekka Rhea thought about the Professor's question as she finished up her notes. She didn't think that flight patterns were useful for anything beside indicating birds' migratory patterns and habits. Things like that, basically. But she tried to think of something about bird calls. Anything. She raised her hand. "I know of one species of bird that has individual calls that it uses to communicate with its young, so only their young knows to repeat it back to its mother. It's so the mother knows that there's not a cuckoo in the nest." Wow, what a lame answer. "But that's not really useful for us," she said, trying, quickly, to think of a better answer. "We make use of a canaries when we take them into mines. If they stop singing, we know it's not safe for us to follow." Heh. That was as good a contribution as she could make. Laurel turned to Rhea last who had waited the longest to share her thoughts on the subject. Beaming at the eagle she said "Yes that's true Rhea all bird mothers communicate with their babies with certain individual calls and they would sense if they had an unwanted cuckoo in tthe nest. And canaries have been known to be used by mine workers as danger alarms one might call them since they stop singing if danger is close."
Rhea was the last to offer up an answer and since none of the other students seemed eager to contribute more to discussion she felt it time to move on. Leaning a hand into the augurey's stall she let Julia hop on to her arm before she turned to face and speak to the students as she stroked the augurey over the feather. "Now then let's move on to our main practical portion since I think you've all by now have gotten some idea of what Ornithomancy is and I think you are more than ready to do some readings. What you'll need for this Ornithomancy reading is the help of an augurey, bird feed, plastic alphabet letters and a thought up yes/no question."
Here Laurel paused to with a few flicks of her wand make the needed materials appear on the floor in front of her feet and to allow the information to sink in. The alphabet letters were now visible in an open chest and dead flies, fairies and insects were lying in several baskets that gave off heavy smells. With the augurey still sitting on her arm laurel gestured for the students to come closer. "To perform the reading you need to form the words yes and no with the plastic letters on the ground and then put generous amounts of bird feed over the letters. When you've done that you need to think up a good yes or no question for tomorrow that you want the answer to then you voice it out loud mine would be 'Will I get a letter with tomorrow mornings post owls from Imogen Greyvson' then you have to release the augurey and watch which pile of bird feeding it goes for first because that will give you the answer to your question. You might need to coax the augurey into action, but they should be hungry since Prof Wayland hasn't fed them yet today." As she talked the letters formed themselves into words at her feet and flies and insects and fairys landed on top of the words and the augurey known as Julia flew down from Professor Vances arm and began to peck with intensity at the feeding over the no word.
A flash of disappointment crossed over Prof Vance's face as she said "How unfortunate maybe I'll hear back another day. Anway hop to it everyone Julia, Artreyu, Susie and Romeo are here to aid you with your readings. You've got 45 minutes to get your readings done!" OOC: Main activity time! You've got until Wednesday September 20th at around 7pm to complete the activity before i wrap up the lesson. If it wasn't clear before then i say now catching up is always allowed throughout all my lessons until i've locked them.
Each house has their own augurey at their disposal that the students of that house would take turns with.
Artreyu - Hufflepuff
Julia- Ravenclaw
Romeo - Gryffindor
Susie- Slytherin
As Laurel explained above you need to perform these steps to be able get full activity credit for the ornithomancy reading in as many or as few posts as you want.
1. Fetch bird generous amounts of birds feeding and the plastic letters
2. Use the plastic letters to form the words YES and NO on the ground
3. Pile bird feeding over the formed words
4. Think up a good Yes/No question that your student wants the answer to and then say it out loud.
5. Release the 'house' augurey and if needed coax it into eating the food available and interpret what that means for your students asked question.
Have fun with this! Be creative! If you have any questions then don't hestiate to vm/pm or ask me in the lesson thread..
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Last edited by Nordic Witch; 09-17-2017 at 12:54 PM.
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